Royal aides are 'too frightened' to tell Prince Philip to give up driving at 97

The Duke of Edinburgh’s senior advisors are reportedly ‘too frightened’ to tell him to give up driving, sources have told the Daily Express.

The report added they have "long been concerned about his driving but have been waved away by the irascible Duke of Edinburgh."

Prince Philip was driving near the Sandringham estate on Thursday afternoon, when his Land Rover collided with a Kia at the junction of the B1439 where it meets the A149.

While the Duke was uninjured, the driver of the Kia, a 28-year-old woman, suffered cuts to her knee while the passenger, Emma Fairweather, 46, sustained a broken wrist. Norfolk Police also confirmed a nine-month-old baby boy was in the Kia at the time of the incident and was uninjured.

Philip was photographed driving a new £68,000 Land Rover Freelander on Saturday, reportedly without a seatbelt.

Norfolk Police said "suitable words of advice have been given to the driver."

Police said the advice given to Philip was "in line with our standard response when being made aware of such images showing this type of offence."

The accident has sparked a fresh debate about whether the 97-year-old Duke should still be driving.

Princess Diana's former bodyguard Ken Wharfe told the Daily Express: "He [Prince Philip] is a man of his own mind and he will do what he wants.

"Nobody in an advanced royal support position is going to tell the Royal Family what they should do. You would very quickly become very unpopular and continuing in your job would become very difficult."

Royal sources told the newspaper it never entered the Prince's head to give up driving after the crash.

According to Age UK's website: "Once you reach the age of 70, your licence expires, but this doesn't automatically mean you have to stop driving. You just need to renew your driving licence if you want to continue. You'll need to renew it every 3 years after that."

It goes on to advise that some medical conditions, such as dementia, Parkinson's or conditions which affect the eyes, should be declared to the DVLA.

Having a medical condition doesn't mean that a person will lose their licence, it may mean they could need help with adjusting or make adaptations to their car. However, Age UK goes on to explain "Unfortunately, the DVLA can also tell you to stop driving, if you're not fit to drive."

Figures from the DVLA in November showed 110,790 people aged 90 or over still held driving licences.

There were 314 licence holders aged at least 100. The oldest were four people who were 107.